House GOP backs off ethics changes in 1st day of disarray

Republican members of the House of Representatives gather for a photo in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, as the 115th Congress convened. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Republican members of the House of Representatives gather for a photo in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, as the 115th Congress convened. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

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Kamala Harris is sworn in to the Senate by Vice President Joe Biden, as her husband, Douglas Emhoff, holds the Bible.

Kamala Harris is sworn in to the Senate by Vice President Joe Biden, as her husband, Douglas Emhoff, holds the Bible.

Photo: Kevin Wolf, Associated Press

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U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, right, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, stand at the podium after being reelected in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017. Ryan was formally re-elected House speaker today at the start of the 115th Congress as he intensifies his efforts to move past his differences with Donald Trump after a divisive campaign. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg less

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, right, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, stand at the podium after being reelected in the House Chamber at the U.S. ... more

Photo: Andrew Harrer, Bloomberg

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House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., sits in the House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., sits in the House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday.

Photo: Andrew Harrer, Bloomberg

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House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., greets members of the House after being re-elected speaker during the opening of the 115th U.S. Congress.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., greets members of the House after being re-elected speaker during the opening of the 115th U.S. Congress.

Photo: STEPHEN CROWLEY, NYT

House GOP backs off ethics changes in 1st day of disarray

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House Republicans stumbled on their first day of unified control of Congress Tuesday as they abandoned a planned gutting of an independent ethics office after the move drew a public backlash and a Twitter scolding from President-elect Donald Trump.

California also got its first new senator in 24 years, as Democrat Kamala Harris took the oath of office on her family Bible and walked down the Senate aisle with her California colleague, Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Republicans had voted 119-74 in a secret House GOP Caucus meeting Monday night to hobble the Office of Congressional Ethics as part of new rules to govern the incoming Congress. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, told reporters Tuesday morning that he was one of the first to urge his colleagues against the change, defending the plan on the merits but conceding that it was generating bad publicity.

Republicans quickly dropped the provision after Trump tweeted that they had better things to do.

“With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority,” Trump tweeted. “Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!”

The tweets hit Republicans like a “shock wave,” said Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa. “We’ve never seen a president like this who has this kind of following,” he said. “He comes here with a tool of communicating directly with the American people, and it sends shivers down the spine of Congress.”

The Office of Congressional Ethics is an independent, nonpartisan entity established in 2008 to review allegations of misconduct against House members, officers and staff. It operates independently of the House Ethics Committee, which is composed of members of Congress. Set up after complaints that the Ethics Committee buried allegations of misconduct, the independent office’s findings must be made public in most cases, and it can investigate anonymous charges from the public.

The ethics office was responsible for investigating San Jose Democrat Mike Honda’s alleged use of his House office staff and other resources in his campaigns. The office referred the allegations to the Ethics Committee, and they played a role in Honda’s November defeat by fellow Democrat Ro Khanna, who was sworn in Tuesday.

The reversal on gutting the office came before Republicans had even opened the new Congress on its first day in session. After abandoning the ethics changes, Republicans voted to re-elect House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi was re-elected minority leader, this time losing only a handful of Democratic votes compared with the 63 who voted against her leadership in a secret caucus ballot after the November election.

Pelosi sat with two grandchildren as Democrats registered their outrage over the attempted ethics change during the open roll call. Many called out Pelosi’s name as their choice for speaker, citing their belief in ethical behavior, open debate and the Constitution.

Pelosi had blasted the rule change after it was made Monday night, saying, “evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress.”

Democrats were pleasantly surprised that the barrage of activity they have been expecting from Republicans got off to such a rocky start, but they were still furious that Republicans retained a rule change prohibiting members from taking photos or video from the House floor.

The new video ban is Ryan’s rebuke to Democrats’ spontaneous, all-night sit-in last fall, when they commandeered the House floor to protest lack of action on gun control. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, was part of a team feeding video of the protest from the floor after Republicans ordered C-Span cameras to go dark. C-Span soon picked up the Democratic video feed and broadcast it on national television.

“I don’t think it’s an auspicious start,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, said of the Republicans. “It shows they really don’t want to be held accountable.”

Democrats “still don’t really know what the incoming president is going to do, since he’s said contradictory things on many subjects,” Lofgren said. “The congressional agenda is much clearer, which is to dismantle programs that Americans rely on, and our job is to try to stop them.”

Political scientist Jack Pitney of Claremont McKenna College, said he thought House Republicans were reacting as much to a backlash from their own constituents as to Trump on the ethics changes.

Two-thirds of House Republicans weren’t in office during the GOP scandals of the early George W. Bush administration that forced out former House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Florida Republican Mark Foley, Pitney noted.

“They may not realize that ethical laxity is bad politics,” he said, adding that he expects more stumbles and more scandals. Republicans “will be able to get certain things done. They’ll be able to repeal Obamacare. The hard part is replacing it.”

The same will hold true for tax reform, Pitney predicted, treacherous terrain that requires not just cutting tax rates, but eliminating popular tax breaks. Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced a resolution to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Harris, filling the seat vacated by retiring Democrat Barbara Boxer, took the oath from Vice President Joe Biden, along with six other freshman senators, five of them Democrats: Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a wounded Iraq War veteran who walked to her oath-taking on artificial legs; Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.; and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.

Harris promised that one of her first acts would be to “co-sponsor a bipartisan bill that would protect young Dream Act immigrants from being targeted for deportation by the incoming administration,” her office said in a statement, referring to immigrants who were brought into the country by their parents without authorization.

Democrats netted an additional two seats in November, narrowing the Republican majority to 52-48, far short of a filibuster-proof 60 votes. The GOP majority may be stronger than it looks, however, because 23 Democrats and two independents are up for re-election in 2018, including 10 in states that voted for Trump. How those Democrats vote in the year ahead is one of the big unknowns of Republican-dominated Washington.

Senate Republicans also appeared ready Tuesday to drop any notion of an independent investigation of Russia’s alleged interference in the November election. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John McCain, R-Ariz., backed off their demand for an independent panel, which Pelosi supports. The two Republicans lacked support from their caucus for the probe, which now will be left in the hands of the Intelligence committees, chaired in the House by Tulare Republican Devin Nunes and in the Senate by Richard Burr, R-N.C.